


What He Stole

by myticanlegends



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, First Kiss, M/M, Waffles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-11-12 13:10:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11162523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myticanlegends/pseuds/myticanlegends
Summary: Wylan Van Eck is the perfect target for a thief. The son of a rich merchant with a face that just screamed innocence. Every Wednesday he would make a journey through the streets of Ketterdam delivering letters for his father. Pattern boded well for thieves as well.Unfortunately for Jesper Fahey, an innocent face did not necessarily equate to ignorance.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-Wylan Van Eck was not stupid despite what his father may believe. He knows when he is the target of a theft but unfortunately for him, that does not mean he can necessarily prevent it. What he didn't expect was anything that came out of it.One of those things being that somehow he ended up at a waffle house across the table from one Jesper Fahey.





	1. Chapter 1

Jesper was a thief and a damn good one. It was a finely honed skill to be able to sneak things out of people's pockets without them noticing or to pick the right target. It involved lots of being sneaky at some points and being loud, another personal talent, at others. It required judging a person's personal space, moving around it, and sometimes, being seductive.

Right now, it was a simple lift from someone walking in the streets. The easiest type of job there was.

Wylan Van Eck. Son of a wealthy merchant who weekly made his way up the streets of Ketterdam from his father's protective home and into the city's grasp.

What or where he was doing or going was a mystery to Jesper. It didn't matter. His boss, Kaz Brekker, probably knew. In fact, it wasn't even a probably because Kaz Brekker knew everything. But again, it didn't matter to Jesper.

What _did _matter was that Wylan was currently walking down the streets of Ketterdam. He had stopped at a bakery which meant he had a sweet tooth and that his hands were preoccupied with some fancy flaky desert. It also mattered that he had a satchel. Satchels were easily one of the best targets; they weren't very attached to a person and swung easily, making it even easier to slip a hand inside. In the satchel were a handful of letters that, according to Kaz, detailed outlines of Van Eck's financials and plans they could use to their advantage. There was also, likely, money, as the pastry suggested he had bought it with _something _. However, it was the letters, not the money, that was the goal.____

_____ _

_____ _

Wylan Van Eck was also cute which was not important but definitely made Jesper's job a little more fun.

It was a miracle the poor kid hadn't been robbed before based on the looks of him. Jesper grinned as he walked out into the streets of Ketterdam looking to everyone else like just another man with a place to go. His hands were loose at his side and it would be all too easy to brush against someone's side and steal a watch or a wallet. Instead, he went absentmindedly towards his target.

It was a couple feet away when it became clear that the two of them were on a collision course. Subtlety. The boy was too invested in his pastry and navigating the streets to notice and Jesper... he was busy looking as if he didn't know where he was going.

It wasn't a giant crash to the ground but a gentle bump and a cordial apology. The boy's pastry fell to the ground in surprise but it was the only casualty. The meeting of the two body's consisted of a hand slipped inside the satchel and casually grasping the letters. Wylan's eyes were remarkably blue and entirely unfocused on what Jesper was doing as their eyes met. He flushed pink as Jesper smirked. It was absolutely adorable.

"Sorry about that," Jesper apologized brightly again. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Neither was I," Wylan admitted, still pink in the face.

A hand was placed on the boy's shoulder as a friendly pat and the other snuck the letters into his own pockets. "That's all right! I guess it's on the both of us then."

"I guess," Wylan repeated.

Jesper retreated back only a little with his job complete and found himself focusing on the dropped pastry or at least what hadn't been finished off. He snagged on the idea. "Sorry for ruining your meal too. I can pay you back. The Waffle House, tomorrow, around lunch time? My treat."

Wylan sputtered. "I- I just- You don't have to- I was almost finished with it anyway."

"I insist," Jesper grinned again and what was fading of Wylan's blush came back full force. It was all too easy.

"I can't," he finally said. He sounded a little disappointed. Jesper couldn't help but being a little disappointed too.

"Unfortunate," Jesper commented. "I would have liked to see your stupid face again."

Wylan hesitated with something, whether thought or decision. When Jesper turned to leave a hand grasped onto his elbow with a small, "Wait."

Jesper looked back with a raised eyebrow and Wylan beckoned him to the side of the street where people weren't pushing past them looking for a place to gamble or a place of pleasure or food. He ended up following the boy into a small enclosure between buildings and things just continued to look better for him.

Jesper whistled. "If you wanted to get me alone, you only had to ask."

"I can't go to a Waffle House with you," Wylan began through his flustered expression. Despite it, he seemed uncharacteristically confident. "Because I have to do business for my father. Jan Van Eck. But you already knew that."

And just like that, the steady incline of Jesper's luck began to slip.

"A merchling, eh?" he asked with a smirk, playing innocent. "Wish I had known that, otherwise I would have known you could pay for a waffle yourself."

Wylan ignored him and began tugging off Jesper's suit jacket. Jesper's eyebrows continued to raise and his smirk widened. "Greedy, aren't you, merchling?"

And suddenly Wylan was holding the stolen letters in front of his face as proof of his discrepancy. He had found them in the inside jacket pocket. Perhaps he had known Jesper had taken them all along. The hill Jesper had been climbing suddenly was no longer slipping but was officially a slide landing Jesper right now at the bottom where he started.

Wylan looked just as startled at this discovery as Jesper was that Wylan had caught him and checked his satchel as if too make sure they were really his letters. After apparently verifying they were indeed his, he looked up at Jesper in confusion.

"The letters? Why not the money?" Wylan asked, looking genuinely puzzled.

"You thought I had stolen money?" Jesper asked, also confused. "How did you know I stole anything in the first place?"

"My father is Jan Van Eck. He's one of the richest men in Ketterdam. I'd be stupid to trust anyone that bumps into me in the street _especially _if they offer to buy me waffles."__

____

____

That was fair enough. Perhaps the merchling wasn't as stupid or innocent as he appeared. But yet- "Why especially waffles?"

Wylan looked at him as if it were obvious. "No one wants to ever see me again unless it's for my money."

Jesper stared. "Now that's just sad."

Wylan shrugged and his nonchalant attitude just made the situation all the bit more tragic. "Doesn't make it any less true."

"Have you even had _friends _?" Jesper asked incredulously and Wylan was back to blushing again, this time with embarrassment.__

____

____

He adjusted his satchel on his shoulder, his attention towards the brick wall behind Jesper's head instead. "None of your business," he said defensively. "I'm too busy. Studying and stuff."

"Studying," Jesper deadpanned.

Wylan straightened and looked him right in the eye, red in the face but serious, and answered so fiercely that Jesper believed him, "Studying."

"What on earth do you have to-"

Wylan cut him off. "Why are you stealing the letters? Are they important or...?"

"Are they important?" Jesper stared. "They hold perhaps the most important information in all of Ketterdam and you're wondering why they're worth stealing? Can you even read?"

Wylan was now the brightest shade of red Jesper had seen him with so far and quite possibly the brightest shade of red Jesper had seen on anyone. He seemed embarrassed and frustrated and entirely lacking words. He shoved the letters into his satchel, making sure to buckle it closed, before moving to head out on the bustling streets. This mission was turning out to be a failure of epic size and Jesper hadn't failed in stealing an item in a long time.

In a blind panic, he reached towards Wylan and pulled him back until their lips met. It lacked the subtlety Jesper occasionally prided himself on and hardly was full of his usually charm but it worked. Wylan, although stiff with surprise, made no move to fall away even if his hand stayed protectively over the opening to the satchel. Now that wouldn't do.

Jesper slid one of his hands to the back of Wylan's head to tangle it with those gorgeous copper curls and pull him closer. It produced the intended effect and Wylan's own hands flew to Jesper's chest, either to push him away or step closer. Bingo. In a flash Jesper had the letters safely transferred into his pockets once more. Wylan pushed him away, staring, bright eyed and flushed.

"Just so you know," Jesper drawled. "I didn't offer to buy you waffles for your money. I offered to buy you waffles because you're cute."

With Wylan still struggling to produce words, gaping at him like a fish, Jesper winked and turned on his heel out of the gap between buildings. "Offer's still on the table, merchling," he called behind him.

Then Jesper weaved his way into the crowd before the boy could come to his senses. Really, one of his most fun missions yet. There was nothing like a little risk to excite his day a little more than usual. Maybe tomorrow there would be waffles involved and that in itself was a risk. Wylan could call guards to catch him or he could possibly never show.

It was a risk Jesper was willing to take.

Until then, he had a delivery to make.


	2. Chapter 2

_The Waffle House, tomorrow, around lunch time._

Tomorrow was now today and yesterday had left Wylan with a missing a stack of letters from his satchel and a sudden craving for waffles.

His father hadn't been informed that Wylan had been robbed in the streets yesterday and that the letters hadn't been delivered to their intended targets. In fact, their intended targets _did_  somehow receive the letters and were discussing business strategy in Van Eck's office now. Wylan hadn't needed to tell him that there had been an incident and didn't plan on it.

He was able to slip home without notice that day and sneak in some time to practice his sciences. Every second, Wylan spent it anxiously wondering when his father was going to barge in and demand why his associates hadn't gotten their package. When it became clear that he wasn't going to be showing up, Wylan spent his time anxiously wondering about the handsome thief he had bumped into.

Or more accurately, the boy that had specifically picked him out from the crowd and bumped into him to steal from.

Wylan had the worst luck in the world.

It hadn't been his first kiss. Before this there had been that cute tutor and as it turns out, they didn't do much tutoring.

Mostly telling jokes, subtle flirting, and occasionally a kiss between bookshelves. Wylan would never learn how to read and he knew more maths and sciences than anyone could have taught him anyway. It was a short relationship seeing as his tutors were replaced fairly often, and in this case, faster if Jan Van Eck got a whiff of something a little less appropriate. It was a shame, Wylan had really liked him, and he got the idea the other boy liked him just as much.

And before that had been his real first kiss, one of the son's of his father's business associates who had been kind enough to talk to Wylan during one of the long droning events of the upperclass. He had made Wylan blush, they had a drink together, and when the night was over, he snuck a kiss as he was leaving. Wylan never saw him again but heard he was going to some high class business college.

So no, that thief hadn't been his first kiss and Wylan was sure enough in his sexuality that not every conversation with another boy made his blush like it had when he was younger.

But there was something about his playful blue eyes and attitude that Wylan couldn't help but be affected by. Which was stupid. The man had _robbed_  him for christ's sake, he shouldn't be daydreaming about some man who had kissed him in order to make an escape.

He spent his night agonizing over whether he meant it, about the waffles, and whether or not to check in the morning. Which was also stupid. As his father often and deliberately pointed out whenever he could, Wylan was stupid. What kind of teenage boy couldn't read?

The thief on the streets had even casually tossed the idea out like a joke or something to mock.

Another reason not to go.

Wylan reminded himself that the man hadn't known he couldn't read. He had offered to pay for a replacement for Wylan's dropped pastry and seemed surprised when Wylan suggested it was part of his ploy. He had been charming and handsome. Evidently the letters had been delivered which boded well for him despite the fact he had stolen them in the first place.

It was reckless. Definitely one of the more stupid things Wylan had done in his life and Wylan prided himself on his intelligence. But for once, just once, Wylan wanted something outside of his father's business, outside of being a disappointment, and outside the never-ending line of tutors trying to teach him something he could never be taught.

So here he was standing outside of a waffle house in the afternoon the next day.

He had went as a last minute decision and basically forced himself to come, if not to at least confront the thief, and by the time he got there, the lunch rush was almost over. They hadn't set an exact time, Wylan found himself reminding himself as he scanned the restaurant. Or it could have been a joke or just to be polite, there was no reason for the man to actually be there, Wylan was just making sure.

He also really wanted waffles.

There he was. In the corner. Wylan saw the back of a dark head and when it turned in his direction, he saw a familiar pair of light blue eyes. The most perfect pair of lips Wylan had ever seen curved into a grin and Wylan felt like dying.

"You came!" The man said, striding towards him with a pair of very long legs. "I didn't think you would show."

"You owe me," Wylan replied, hands twisting in his pockets for some source of stability. "You knocked into my pastry. And stole my father's letters."

"He didn't need them," the man waved him off. "Besides, that's why we are at the Waffle House, aren't we?"

Wylan shrugged but the man didn't seem to take it personally. Instead, he shrugged back at him and led Wylan to the table where he didn't even glance at the menu. His focus remained on Wylan the whole time and so did his smile. 

"What are you getting?" The man asked. "I usually get the waffle with ice cream, caramel and sprinkles. I have the menu memorized. My friend Nina loves this place."

This was weird. It was weird, wasn't it? Just yesterday this man was stealing from him and now he was talking about his friends and waffles casually as if this was an every day occurrence.

"Umm... I don't know?" Wylan answered. He didn't even bother glancing at the menu considering he couldn't read it.

"What kind of man doesn't know his waffle order?" The man asked, sounding appalled.

Wylan refrained from telling him that a personal chef often made his family breakfast and that if it was waffles, it didn't normally have anything but butter and syrup on it. These sounded like dessert waffles. Any desserts Wylan had were when there was company or there was an event to go to and neither were inelegant enough to serve waffles.

"Me?" Wylan tried.

"Hmm," the man hummed but luckily, he didn't make any further comment. Until, at least, he continued with a wink, "You seem like a dark chocolate kind of guy. Let's get you one of those."

Wylan turned bright red at the suggestive comment, his cheeks flooding with heat, and he knew he was doomed.

Their order was placed and Wylan watched as money was exchanged. He wondered if it was stolen money but the man, noticing the glance, shook his head as if knowing what he was thinking.

"I'd make you pay, merchling, but like we've established, I owe you."

"Do you pay back everyone you knock their pastries from or just me?" Wylan asked, still fighting his blush. But at least he tried joining this, was it flirting?, or whatever this man was doing.

"Nah, it's only you," the man smirked, seeming delighted, and Wylan's blush would NOT die down. "You're lucky you're cute."

"Are you going to steal the money for the waffles back when I leave?" Wylan asked, pushing on.

The man looked like he was seriously considering this for a minute before answering, "No. I can't promise we won't steal your father's money though."

Wylan didn't even know this man's name. He didn't know who this "we" was or if it included this Nina. But he thought of his father calling him stupid and threatening to disown him. Wylan knew he really would disown him the minute Alys's new baby was born. Jan Van Eck did not allow disabled children into his family. So Wylan found he didn't care if this group Jesper was apart of stole from his father.

"Okay," he shrugged.

The man's grin grew in size and he laughed, "The real reason you meet with me is revealed. Got some daddy issues?"

That was a mild way of putting it. Wylan shrugged again instead of speaking and when a set of waffles were placed in front of him, he stabbed his fork into the chocolatey ice cream at the top.

The man lifted his hands in surrender. "Got it. No more talk about your family."

"Thanks," Wylan muttered, digging into his waffle as soon as he wiggled his fork out.

The first bite was heaven in a creamy battered form. Wylan couldn't stop the delighted groan from escaping his throat and he quickly shoved more waffles in his mouth.

The man laughed again as he watched, "You really don't venture into Ketterdam very often, do you?"

"Last time I came through, someone stole from me," Wylan said dryly.

"What an asshole," the man said flippantly. "Thank god you showed up for waffles, I was beginning to think you hated me for that. And after that wonderful kiss we shared-" he placed his hand dramatically over his heart and Wylan turned bright red at the mere mention, almost chocking on his waffle. "-I was beginning to think you had forsaken me."

Wylan sputtered, trying to think of how to possibly respond to that. He quickly swallowed what was left of the bit of the waffle he was chewing and started speaking and he tried to formulate words. "I- we- It's just that- I don't even know your name."

"Jesper Fahey, at your service," the man said, sticking his hand out with no hesitation.

It occurred to Wylan that he could turn Jesper in with this information. And his friend Nina too, if they were looking for associates. 

Then again, he didn't know if Nina was a criminal too. She probably was, Jesper seemed part of a group, but he had no proof. He knew Jesper was a thief but Wylan didn't want to admit he had been stolen from if it could get back to his father, even if the letters had been returned. Wylan also didn't want to lose this friendly face even though they had just met. Selfishly, he also wondered what this team of Jesper's planned to do with those borrowed letters and how they'd steal from his father. He wanted something of his own and he finally wanted to do something about it. This could be it.

Hesitantly, he shook Jesper's hand, keeping an eye on his fingers just in case they snatched his watch. "Nice to meet you."

When his hand was free, Wylan looked back up to see Jesper watching him thoughtfully. "Wylan Van Eck," he started. "I think you are in for some fun."

That was exactly what Wylan was hoping for.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! It's just a short story but I hope you all enjoyed it and have a nice day!


End file.
